Just kind of goes to show you that people into this extreme body modification aren't the most mentally stable people to begin with. No amount of needles or holes in your body will ever fill the void in your soul. Usually, people figure that out. Some of them, like this guy, never do.

Some days, Fark really surprises me and restores my faith in humanity a little by showing me the kindness, charity and compassion random strangers can show each other.

Most days, though, there are threads like this. I don't mean everyone in it, just some of you. So farking what if he was a weirdo. He didn't seem to be hurting anyone. It's not like he was out taking bailout money and buying new banks with money he should have been giving out to people who could use it, or treating people like second class citizens just because of who they love.

He wanted to buy a bunch of vintage tiger skin pelts so he could have his human skin removed and have the pelts grafted on in replacement.

1. You can't make preserved dead skin into live tissue again.

2. Old vintage pelts & rugs were treated with various nasty chemicals, like mercury. Had he actually tried to do this with his quack of a doctor, the results would have been painfully gruesome.

In short, the guy was a total mental case with a fetish for self mutilation, a la Karl Kroenen.

"On November 5th 2012, Dennis Avner was confirmed dead at 54. His body is being held in Tonopah and his cause of death is speculated to be suicide. "

Can you imagine the sheer temptation there must be for the morgue staff to post photos on the Internet of this guy on the slab? And just imagine what his autopsy report would read like (you know what to do, Smoking Gun).

Oh, I see the Fark armchair psychiatrists are out in full force today.

I met Stalking Cat over a decade ago, as well as Lizardman (pic above) and many, many, many more just as or nearly as modified. They are just the same as everybody else, except they have the strength to do their own thing. Y'all espouse individualism but very very few actually know what that means. The modified people I know range from the homeless to multi-millionaires. Same with the non-modified people I know. I worked in the body modification industry for a decade and though I'm not visibly different, I've had extensive work done. And I also have two degrees, including a master's in architecture and a totally fun but mostly average life.

Please resist the urge to pigeonhole this man based on his looks. It's very sad when anybody takes his own life. Non-modified people take their lives, too.

Cat was a very close friend. We were essentially family to each other after the passing of my first husband. He helped me through some of the most troubling times in my life.

He was a man of great intelligence. Someone you could always turn to when you needed a straight forward answer. I can't imagine him ever feeling such despair in life to take his own. We lost touch a few months ago but at the time he was in good spirits.

He was well loved by those whose life he touched. My heart goes out to his family and friends. I know there are plenty of negative comments that will be posted in this thread by those who would not do so had they had a chance to know him.

Definitely. This guy was right up there with so-called transsexuals and people who get their legs cut off.

And these people are allowed to vote, drive, and reproduce (if they're able).

Which is what's wrong with American "democracy": if I have to be ruled by a conglomerate of other people I'd rather it be people who are at least as sane and smart as I am. That should be easy, as most of those who are aware of my posting record here would agree. Why ain't it?

There's a noted correlation between depression and suicide, and those who end up performing significant body modification (including a great body of work relating to transgender individuals). You might think that it makes sense, that feeling like you're in the wrong body would be depressing and that once you get the 'right one' you'll be happy - but that's not true. Even after receiving the modifications, these folk are still depressed and have a much higher chance of suicide! This is not a minority either, but a majority of folks.

So, the snarky folks saying, "Gee, he had issues, who woulda thunk it," may be right in the general sense. If we actually want to help these people to be happy, I can't think of any way to do so without being a fascist about it: doctors treat anyone who asks for significant body modifications as suicidal-depressive until they get sign off from a psychologist that says otherwise.

Or, you know, let them do what they want, knowing that they'll likely be miserable, and at least attempt to off themselves, if not succeed.

Death does not work that way - you exist until you don't - no peace to factor in, your consciousness simply no longer exists. Unless you are saying there is something peaceful about suicide?

I bet you're the kind of person who proselytize atheism at funerals.

Fundamentalist atheists like you, who feel the need to push your beliefs on others when there is absolutely no reason to do so is why I am now a militant agnostic. You are just as bad as all the other religious fundamentalists.

Meh, whatever.He did what he wanted in life to (I guess) be happy.One of seven bilion who wasn't a generic robot droid and (like Mr. Cool Ice) perhaps made decisions that we would consider questionable but nonetheless had an effect on us. An effect of knowing the possible or exploring limits. These (not sure I'd call them brave) individuals did things for us that we would not do for anyone.I, for one, am saddened at the passing of Mr. Tiger Person and wish to thank him and his kind for making our world a little more interesting.

I first met him in 2003, but of course I saw the Ripley's episode long before that.

He was never a close friend, but I've worked with him at conventions, and hung out with him. He wasn't a mentor to me like he was to several of my friends, but he certainly loomed large in our lives - when people I look to for guidance looked to him for advice and guidance, well.

He was a friend, and now he has passed away. But for people to say "If he was a friend why didn't you help him," help him.. with what, exactly? His sense of body dimorphism, that he was in the wrong body? His hidden disastifaction and depression?

I'm not a psychologist, unlike so many people here. I'm not trained in instantly understanding what's wrong with people based on a photo, short description, or brief interaction - and I stopped thinking I could when I was 16. I'm just an overnight security guard that now works data entry.

kvinesknows:This guy gives morons a bad name. His friends and family for not stepping in and doing something when he first started down the path to crazy are complete and total asshats.

Eh, no idea about his kin in particular, but I know from experience...you CAN'T save everyone.

Knew a gal who committed suicide while medicated, in restraints, on a locked ward, under suicide watch, under 24/7 camera surveillance, under the care of a couple of the best mental health practitioners in the Northwest.

HAMMERTOE:Raug the Dwarf: He wasn't and couldn't be happy as himself. That was the problem. No amount of plastic surgery or body modification would make him happy if he couldn't be fine with who he was to begin with. Then again, if he was happy in the first place, he wouldn't have needed all that surgery to turn himself into something he wasn't. The problem was on the inside, not how he looked on the outside.

And this is different from transsexuals, how?

I don't think it is. I really can't be sure of course, but I suspect that people who insist on taking drastic steps to change gender tend to have been brought up in environments that encourage sexual stereotypes as well. People often cite brain differences that happen in utero, but actually these differences are much more common than "gender dysphoria" and don't really provide an explanation - only part of the story at best. When there really are people who feel just as strongly that they "should" be a cat or a wolf etc then you must admit there is a big psychological factor at play.

I think it is really sad that he is dead. At least he was someone who made the world more interesting. On the other hand if he was really miserable that is terrible. But we don't know that if he committed suicide it had ANYTHING to do with being a "cat man". He could have had some recent life events, just like a lot of other people who kill themselves.

Raug the Dwarf:Just kind of goes to show you that people into this extreme body modification aren't the most mentally stable people to begin with. No amount of needles or holes in your body will ever fill the void in your soul. Usually, people figure that out. Some of them, like this guy, never do.

Sad, sure. But you can't say you didn't see it coming.

THIS.

A couple of tattoos in places a T-shirt and shorts can cover--fine.Tattoos that are on forearms--you'd better be active or former military.Anywhere else--massively foolish.

Altering your looks so that you cannot recognize yourself compared to earlier school photos? HUGE mental problems that should be treated, not celebrated for "edginess".

Some of us have shiatty lives and we try to deal with them in whatever ways we can.

I'll drink to that. For one thing if booze disfigures me it does so 1) on the inside where it's less obvious and 2) as a side-effect of drinking, not as what I pay for.

incidentally, to quote Wikipedia, "Avner, whose parents were of Huron and Lakota heritage, stated that altering oneself to resemble one's own totem is an ancient Huron tradition." Actually they meant painting yourself, wearing costumes, and moving and acting like the animal, all to produce a state where you resembled the animal even more "on the INSIDE." I'm pretty sure that even before the Caucasian Invasion the Hurons would have thought this guy was bonkers. I'd also like to see proof of Native ancestry: this guy looked as white as me.

I will now continue adding yet another day to my shiatty life. At some point I've got to get myself a new psychiatrist so I can keep taking the maximum dose of two allegedly complementary antidepressants; after that might come how much straight rum I can drink without feeling sick, though maybe I'll precede that by going to the ex's and walking the dogs.

One thing that helps me bear my shiatty life is comparing myself to people who are even worse off than me, sometimes by their own doing, including people who are so fat their legs can't hold them up, people who are miserable in prison for leaving kiddy porn around, people who drove drunk and got severely and permanently farked up in a wreck, and people who go out of their way to become even uglier than I am naturally. For the sake of my longevity it's great that there are so many of these people around to pity and scorn more than myself.

As another crazy bum back in Baltimore put it, "I live to make my enemies suffer" -- in other words to make my enemies suffer from my existence more than I do myself -- though it's an added bonus to my lazy self that some enemies make themselves suffer badly without any effort or expense to me.

fluffy2097:You are just as bad as all the other religious fundamentalists.

I agree that he's an asshat, but I don't see these guys blowing themselves up in crowded markets for the glory of Allah or torturing their gay children into suicide. He's just a run of the mill insufferable jerk, which makes him a hell of a lot better than an actual religious fundamentalist.

ToastTheRabbit:Cat was a very close friend. We were essentially family to each other after the passing of my first husband. He helped me through some of the most troubling times in my life.

He was a man of great intelligence. Someone you could always turn to when you needed a straight forward answer. I can't imagine him ever feeling such despair in life to take his own. We lost touch a few months ago but at the time he was in good spirits.

He was well loved by those whose life he touched. My heart goes out to his family and friends. I know there are plenty of negative comments that will be posted in this thread by those who would not do so had they had a chance to know him.

RIP Stalking Cat. You can never be replaced.

If he was such a good friend, maybe you should have done something.. I dunno... to help him. Just saying...I know, I know... he was perfectly normal, except that he was slowly transforming in to a cat and liked to lick his own balls.....

A number of years ago I watched an episode of Ripley's Believe it or Not with my daughter who was about 10 at the time. About a month later we went to Vegas to visit my brother. While there we decided to take the kids to the Siegfried and Roy exhibit to see the dolphins and large cats. We were wandering around and the kids were having a great time. My daughter kept saying, "Mom! It's the cat man! It's the cat man!" I was trying to keep track of a toddler at the time and since we were there to see large cats I didn't really pay attention to what she was saying at first. "Ya, there's lots of big cats, huh honey." "No mom! It's the guy from TV!" So I finally looked at what she was talking about and this gentelman was standing about 15 feet away from us looking at the tiger exhibit. It was cool to seehim up close. We approached him and he was very kind to my daughter and even let me take a picture of them togther. My toddler was terrified. I would love to post the pic but sadly, it's in storage.

Sandinista81:Im still wondering how tigers became a totem animal in North America?

Good question. I'm gonna go out on a limb here, and try to explain this - mind you, this is just my thinking. This may not be fact at all...

The Native Americans (which is a term I prefer over Indians, for that misnomer is one of the dumbest mistakes in human history), are descended from populations from Asia that migrated here. It took a helluva long time, of course. 1000's of years. And they had to travel all the way though northern Russia and Alaska before making their way to areas where they could where almost no clothing and still be comfortable.

The point is, where they originated HAS tigers. Lots of them, in fact. So, I'm sure that they are present in their folklore.

No. He knows this because there IS no coming back from the dead, no matter what your specific fairy tale of choice is or whom your imaginary friends are. This is why the human being, just like any other animal instinctively seeks to continue its own existence. If religious people really were secure in their continued life after death, they wouldn't bother with mourning the dead.

Death does not work that way - you exist until you don't - no peace to factor in, your consciousness simply no longer exists. Unless you are saying there is something peaceful about suicide?

Okay. Okay. Relax we get that you refute the existence of a soul, etc. Nobody cares. You're giving the rest of us atheists a bad name.

This the sad story of a dead kitty. I haz sad.

This should have been on Caturday.

Well, if he would have done it a couple of days sooner, or waited a few more days.....

On a related note, as other's have said, this guy was definetly crying out for help.Of course if someone assumed that and tried to help, some people would get all offended... "he's just expressing himself... there is nothing wrong with getting tattoos... it's his choice..."

Wow, I was surprised and sad to hear this. I talked to Dennis online for awhile a few years back and he was a really calm and nice guy, very zen-like. Although I'm not totally shocked that it was suicide. Despite his outward appearance he was a bit of an introvert and could well have been depressed without anyone knowing.

Marshall Willenholly:All of you who are making fun of him, enjoy the fact that you are sane and don't have a serious mental condition. Some of us have shiatty lives and we try to deal with them in whatever ways we can.

kvinesknows:This guy gives morons a bad name. His friends and family for not stepping in and doing something when he first started down the path to crazy are complete and total asshats.

Perhaps he started down this path to keep them away. Some people are natural hermits. Maybe he was one step beyond that and was a misanthrope who simply didn't want to be human any longer. We humans tend not to tread one another very well. Who knows. Unless he left some kind of letter stating his reasons we'll be left in the dark.

CapeFearCadaver:That is sad. It's always been sad, but it's even sadder now.

/sad

Sad? Why?Idiot. Stupid, Moronic. A sign of severe mental illness. I'll give you all of those but not 'sad'; he did what he wanted to do with his body and as we ALL know here are at Fark that personal freedom is the most important freedom there is.

He was definitely a farking loser, too.The gene pool is one drop cleaner now.

Raug the Dwarf:Just kind of goes to show you that people into this extreme body modification aren't the most mentally stable people to begin with. No amount of needles or holes in your body will ever fill the void in your soul. Usually, people figure that out. Some of them, like this guy, never do.